Getting to Austin

Austin is the home of the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in March every year. It's split into three overlapping conferences, Interactive focuses on digital media and technology, Music on, well music and Film. I had wanted to come here for several years and was really looking forward to it.


On the other hand, getting here proved to be a bit of a nightmare.


The first thing to go wrong was that the flight out of Dublin was delayed by two hours. Apparently, the water wasn't flowing to the galley and toilets. At one point, the captain considered bringing on bottles of water, but I think the crew objected.


Eventually, the engineers fixed the problem and we were on our way. Except of course that I missed my connection in New York. Aer Lingus rebooked me on a flight from La Guardia to Austin, via Dallas-Fort Worth and since it was very late in New York, put me up in a hotel across from the airport.


Well, so far, not the worst. Instead of arriving in Austin on Thursday night, it would be Friday morning. I'd miss the first sessions, but would be there for most of the day.


The next morning was dull and overcast. Not a great start. I was up at 4am to catch the early flight to Dallas, an American Airlines MD-50. Now this is an older airplane which apparently is a gas guzzler. It's got two engines mounted on the rear fuselage of the aircraft. My seat was at the back, next to the right hand engine.


Taxing at La Guardia proved to be a bit long, but at last, we were on the end of the runway. But as the captain spun up the engine to full power, a series of loud bangs came from the engine beside me. Now I've travelled in a lot of airplanes over the years, and I'd never heard something like that before. I looked over at the cabin attendant sitting across from me - she was already on the phone to the cockpit.


The captain powered down the engine and taxied off to a holding area. Yes, the engine was broken and the engineers decided to take the plane out of service. I suppose we were lucky to have the failure while we were on the ground, rather than 60 seconds later at the other end of the runway.


So another plane was brought out and we switched over. Of course, by the time I got to Dallas, my connection had already departed.


This being SXSW week, all the flights to Austin were over booked. The ground staff were desparately offering $300 vouchers to anyone who would give up their seat. There weren't any takers. I was put on standby for the next flight.


And the next flight.


And the next flight.


Already I'd spent four hours in Dallas. The ground staff were apologetic, but it didn't look like I was going to get to Austin. One checked the availability of flights the following day, but the answer was the same, all overbooked.


The weather had also deteriorated and it was starting to rain. The news from Austin was that a large thunderstorm was moving in. I asked someone how long it would take to drive to Austin. Three and a half hours was the reply. A plan was forming.


I fired up the mobile browser and tried a couple of car rental companies. Each site was pretty easy to navigate through, so I booked one through Avis. Five hours later I was sitting in my hotel in Austin thoroughly exhausted.


Total door to door time: 36 hours. But I had made it to SXSW.




Interesting note for frequent travellers: Received wisdom is that it is better to bring your luggage with you on board. It's easier to change flights in airports, there's no delay when you reach your destination and if you get stuck somewhere, at least you'll have your luggage. But here's the counter. If you've checked your luggage, it's on the plane already. This automatically bumps you up the standby queue and so the person I was travelling with went straight onto the next plane, as his luggage was checked. The airline doesn't want to delay the plane by having to remove your luggage from the plane if you don't get a seat.